–President Ramotar

PRESIDENT Donald Ramotar has highly commended the efforts of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry Limited (GCCI) at encouraging greater trade and investment in Guyana.

President Ramotar’s speech appears on Page 9 of the fifth edition of the GCCI’s ‘Business Guyana’ magazine, launched at the Pegasus Hotel last Friday evening. The Head of State asserted: “Through publications such as the ‘Business Guyana’ Magazine, the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry has been in the vanguard of encouraging greater trade and investment to our booming industry.”

In his opening remarks, the Head of State said: “I am pleased to welcome the 5th ‘Business Guyana’ magazine. Judging from previous publications, I have every reason to believe this one will also be of an exceptional quality, one that is befiting of the very high standards that are associated with the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry.”

Offering kudos to the GCCI for a job well done, President Ramotar continued: “I wish to take this opportunity to commend the insightful leadership of the Georgetown Chamber of Commerce and Industry for the excellent work that they have been doing, and especially for the progressive stances they have taken in defence of the national interest.”

He observed that the leadership of the GCCI has been audacious and principled on a number of issues of national concern, and he added: “Indeed, the leadership has been prepared to support development initiatives which they view as being beneficial for Guyana.”

President Ramotar said it is important that all stakeholders continue to work together in advancing the development of Guyana. He holds the view that such collaboration sends a positive signal to investors about the degree of national consensus surround issues of national development, and thus acts as a magnet for attracting greater trade and investment.

Noting that the tremendous strides that our economy has made in recent times would not have gone unnoticed by investors, the Head of State added that these investors continue to show great enthusiasm in doing business with our country.

He deduced that this interest is heightened when important stakeholders within the private sector are seen as being supportive of the development agenda of the country, which was crafted with inputs from national stakeholders.

“We all have a stake in the future of our country. We all have important roles to play at this time when Guyana is poised to intensify and diversity its economic activities. In the next few years, my government will aggressively pursue major infrastructural projects. This will allow us to deepen our economic integration with larger markets, and, through the regional agreements that we have inked, to provide incentives for more competitive trading and investment arrangements with the rest of the world,” he said.

Observing that Guyana is on an irreversible upward trajectory of growth and development, the President confidently stated thus: “In the years ahead, we will continue to blaze new paths and open up new frontiers of development. I therefore invite investors to be part of this exciting process of economic transformation that is taking place, one that is so vividly captured within the pages of this magazine.”

(By Shirley Thomas)